Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau

Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau (1 July 1725-10 May 1807) was a Marshal of France who served as commander-in-chief of the French expeditionary force sent to North America to assist the United States during the American Revolutionary War in 1781.

Biography
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau was born on 1 July 1725 in Vendome, Loir-et-Cher, Kingdom of France, and he entered a cavalry regiment after the death of his older brother. Rochambeau fought in the War of the Austrian Succession, attaining the rank of colonel in 1747 before fighting in the Seven Years' War, becoming a Brigadier-General of the infantry while fighting in Germany against Prussia and Great Britain. In 1780, Rochambeau was given command of 7,000 French troops with the rank of Lieutenant-General, and he was sent to occupy Newport, Rhode Island, where his army would assist George Washington and the Continental Army in besieging New York City. On 22 September 1781, Washington and Rochambeau's armies laid siege to the port of Yorktown in Virginia, where Charles Cornwallis' army was encamped. The Siege of Yorktown effectively ended the war, as the last major British army on American soil had been forced to surrender. Upon returning to France, he was honored by King Louis XVI of France and made Governor of Picardy, and in 1791 he became a Marshal of France. Rochambeau escaped the guillotine during the Reign of Terror, and Napoleon granted him a pension; he died at the age of 82 in 1807.